Acts 12: Hallucinations don't set you free

So Herod cuts off James' head, the people love it, and he thinks, "Hey, not bad -- let's try some more." So he throws Peter in prison and waits for a good time to kill him, too. But "earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church" (12:5), and God is not deaf to their pleas -- Peter still has work to do.

Now, Peter is under pretty tight security -- "sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison" (12:6) -- which makes what happens next all the more miraculous: An angel shows up, Peter's chains fall off, and they mosey on out of there in the middle of the night.

Peter initially takes the view that many modern people take toward all alleged miracles, like the Resurrection -- that there must be some natural explanation, he must be hallucinating: "He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision" (12:9).

But mere hallucinations don't set you free from very real prisons:

"When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, 'Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod.'" (12:10-11)

(Image: Gustave Dore, "St. Peter Delivered from Prison," 19th century)